US is bringing ‘terminal destruction’, says one of the most cited scholars in history

Renowned scholar, scientist, historian and intellectual Noam Chomsky has delivered a scathing appraisal of the United States in the era of Donald Trump.

Appearing on ABC’s The World, Chomsky gave a pretty blunt and frankly terrifying take on Trump’s presidency:

“The most powerful country in history is now leading the way towards what may be terminal destruction.”

It’s been just over 12 months since Trump was elected, which means we’re probably going to have to grind through another three years of his presidency barring impeachment.

At least one Aussie is certain we’ll see another four years after that after he bet $120,000 that Trump will be re-elected in 2020 *shudders*.

Chomsky is considered the father of modern linguistics and has authored over 100 books on every topic under the sun, so when he says words like “terminal destruction” it’s best to pay close attention.

The scholar also spoke to the ABC program about several “seriously objectionable” elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Australia’s difficulties in world affairs and the state of the doomsday clock.

For those who aren’t aware, the doomsday clock was developed by respected scientists to help hypothesise how close the world is to global catastrophe based on the threat of nuclear war, climate change and harmful developments in science and technology.

Such a global catastrophe is represented by “midnight” and the clock is set to a time based on how bad the outlook is at any given time.

In 2018, we’re sitting at two minutes to midnight – that’s the worst it’s been since 1953. The clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight in 1947, with the best outlook coming in 1991 (seventeen minutes to midnight).

Basically, things aren’t looking good.

Lead image: Noam Chomsky lectures during the ceremony for the Conferment of the Honorary Doctorate at Peking University on August 13, 2010 in Beijing, China. (Photo by VCG via Getty Images)